D.C. police search for man who beat an elderly woman in her home

An 18-year-old man was arrested Thursday in connection with a burglary in Northwest D.C. during which an 81-year-old woman was attacked.

The man broke into the woman’s home in the 3500 block of McKinley Street Northwest around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and struck and injured her, said Cmdr. George Kucik of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. Someone found the woman in her front yard after the assault and she was taken to a hospital.

“I think she’s going to ultimately be fine but when someone that age that gets struck, it’s serious,” Cmdr. Kucik said Thursday, before the arrest was made. “Obviously this is someone that we have great concern being out there, that would assault a woman of that age.”

A few hours after speaking out about the burglary, officials said 18-year-old Tyran McElrath, of Southeast D.C. was charged with the crime. Sources at the District’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly said Mr. McElrath was a ward of the District.

Police believe Mr. McElrath entered the home through a rear window and took several items from the woman’s home. Cmdr. Kucik declined to elaborate on the type of items stolen.

Investigators are looking into whether there have been any other recent burglaries committed in the surrounding Chevy Chase neighborhood that could be part of a pattern.

“The person who did this is a coward. The woman’s 81 and someone assaulted her in her own home,” Cmdr. Kucik said. “It’s a heinous crime.”